Coventry car firms were today unveiling new models and celebrating breaking records as the Motor Show opened its doors at the NEC.

The city-based luxury car firm Jaguar revealed it is racing towards an all-time world sales record this year.

The Big Cat?s Coventry-built all-aluminium XJ range was one of the stars of the show as it was unveiled on the Jaguar stand.

And the firm revealed it had overtaken last year?s record-breaking 100,000 sales figure - with three months of the year still to go.

Since January, Jaguar has sold 102,189 cars in 65 countries, beating the total of 100,791 sold for the whole of

2001. This is the fifth successive year of record sales for the Coventry firm.

To add to the city?s success story, another Coventry-built car - the new Peugeot 206 GTI 180 - also made its UK debut at the NEC today. The 180 is built exclusively at Peugeot?s Ryton plant for all world markets.

Peugeot is also showing six concept cars at the show, and Land Rover?s new Discovery will make the short trip from its Solihull factory.

Jaguar?s managing director Mike Beasley said nearly 80 per cent of production has been sold abroad -nearly half in the United States -maintaining Jaguar?s role as a major British exporter. There have been big gains in sales in Japan and Australia. And in the UK, Jaguar boosted its domestic sales by 50 per cent this year to more than 24,000 cars. Only 10 years ago Jaguar?s UK annual total was just 5,600 cars. Mr Beasley said: ?Our sales results for the first nine months of this year continue the dramatic product-led growth we have experienced over the past few years.?

He said that by the time the new XJ range went on sale next spring Jaguar would have introduced new models across its entire range.

The Motor Show itself was once again proving to be a roaring success. About 650,000 visitors are expected at the event, which opens to the public on Friday. It will see the UK debut of 75 models among the 700 cars on show and highlight a great year for the car industry, with sales of new cars set to break the 2.5 million mark this year.